Metro's Fate Still Unclear

Tech, Vcu, 2 Others Waiting For Details

Money and details have delayed the future plans of four Metro Conference schools not included initially in a new all-sports league.

Metro commissioner Ralph McFillen said he expects specifics concerning the new league to be better known within 30 to 45 days, which will allow current Metro schools to chart their courses.

``I think by then it will be clearer,'' McFillen said. ``Whether it will be crystal clear is another matter because so many things need to be addressed. I'm not sure any criteria has been established yet for the new league.''

Late last month the presidents of Metro members Louisville, Tulane and Southern Mississippi announced that they, along with Cincinnati and Memphis of the Great Midwest and Houston of the Southwest Conference, had agreed to form a new league that would begin play in the fall of 1996.

Current Metro members Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth, UNC Charlotte and South Florida were left out of the original mix, but may be included when the new league decides to add teams. Virginia Tech plays football in the Big East and covets full-time membership in that league, but is a Metro member in all other sports.

VCU athletic director Dick Sander could not be reached for comment, but told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that if the new league invited the four Metro leftovers, the Rams would accept.

``We knew that this was going to be a two-step process with the football schools,'' McFillen said. ``Our first choice was to have them come under a Metro umbrella, but that hasn't been the situation to this point. Right now, it hasn't come under anybody else's umbrella, either.''

If the new league jilts the Metro members in favor of other members of the Great Midwest - Marquette, DePaul, St. Louis, Alabama Birmingham - the Metro schools have a few options: Invite other schools to join the league; merge with either the Atlantic 10 or the Colonial Athletic Association as a group; or split up and go their separate ways.

CAA commissioner Tom Yeager has said he would welcome the four schools, but he, too, is on hold.

``It's like getting fired up for the big game, but you don't know when it is,'' Yeager said.

Money, as usual, figures to be a key component in the process. The NCAA probably will have to rule on the distribution of money accrued from the men's basketball tournament pool, Yeager said.

The NCAA's system for money distribution is based on ``pool units'' that accumulate over a rolling six-year period. A league receives one pool unit for every NCAA Tournament game members play. Current year's NCAA games are added on and those from the first year in the six-year cycle are dropped.

Each unit is worth $43,000. The Metro currently has 26 units, which are worth $1.18 million. Over the six-year period the Metro's pool could be worth up to $5 million.

Departing schools forfeit their rights to share in the Metro money, and the league retains the units for at least a year. But it is unclear what happens after that.

``On the one hand, there are several kinds of precedents that arguably could be applied'' for the league to retain the units, said Yeager, playing devil's advocate.

``On the other side, you're kind of in uncharted waters. Five years ago, whowould have thought that the Southwest Conference would cease to exist? Does thatmean Houston can say, `We're the Southwest Conference,' and keep all their units?

``In between that, you have the fact that most of the Metro's units come from schools that are no longer in the league: Louisville, Memphis State, Cincinnati, Tulane. And if the Metro doesn't exist, shouldn't you give each school the units they've earned and let them go their own way? There are a lot of arguments to be made both ways and somebody has to decide.''